Currently Reading or Recommend.

What I'm listening to on iTunes.

February 08, 2008

I had the opportunity to experience the new video tool from Yahoo this afternoon. It's interesting, a bit busy and from first appearances a bit rough around the edges. My own experiences, (note: your mileage may vary,) the chat room worked only part of the time when I entered someone's broadcast. The chat room reminds me of early chat programs when they first came out, like ICQ, with the wild colours and expansive fonts. For me it made for a less than pleasant chat experience. Thankfully there's Skype, and in one session we set up a back channel for text and for a while, voice, chat, to see if we all couldn't make sense of this new tool.

I was unable to find out how to carry on a conversation with anyone in particular in any of the broadcasts I joined. There were times, that I could chat with one or two people who were a part of the broadcast. Other times, we were relegated to writing signs with crayons and paper and holding them up to our camera's for all to see.

Does anyone know if your broadcast is limited to simply the four other video participants that show up on the screen? It occurred to me that the four other video participants on my screen were not necessarily the same folks that were on other participants screens.

In this day and age, I expect more from a company, especially like Yahoo, who brings out a program like this, and then apparently expects those of us in the general public to finish de-bugging the product for them. Overall the product looks good and the idea is sound to a point, and yet, it leave me and others I've spoken with with a less than favourable taste in our mouths. I'll continue to make use of the other video products that are currently available, and take another look at Live in a couple of weeks and see what has transpired.

February 03, 2008

There have been a few new Social Media tools I've been using over the past week or so. Adobe AIR applications, Snitter, twhirl, and and for Pownce. Earlier this week I dumped all of the AIR application/client's as none of them played well with anything on either of my computers. I like the concept of having a stand alone client for Twitter and Pownce and whatever else is in the works, along with certain features that were available, I was spending entirely to much time messing with the program to make it worth my while.
So now it's back to using a web browser, sometimes Firefox and sometimes Flock, until the next generation of AIR applications arrive. I guess this is all a part of being on the bleeding edge of Social Networking technology.

In the currently world of Social Media there are new tools, available to us daily and in some cases almost hourly. Qik.com is just one of those sites. Qik.com is a great site where those who have any of the following phones: Nokia S60 phones: N71, N73, N75, N76, N77, N80, N91, N92, N93i, N95, E50, E51, E61i, E65, E70m E90 Communicator, 3250, 5500, 5700 Xpress Music, 6110 Navigator, 6120 Classic, 6121 Classic, and 6290, can make use of the service. I don't know the current user base of any of the list and I'd imagine it's small in the larger internet scheme of things. Now, what's even more annoying is that unless you have one of the aforementioned phones, you can't make use of the Qik.com chat feature.
I've had one occasion to use a Nokia N800 recently on our trip to India. I'm impressed with Nokia and what they've done with hardware. Likewise the software interface that has given us Qik.com is also impressive. Yet, it's a walled garden in the social media world. I'd expect more from Nokia.

December 28, 2006

Apparently there is a current challenge with making voice or video connections over iChat. I just had an opportunity to do a test with a friend of mine in the Bay area and we were unable to connect. Anyone else out there having a similar challenge?

December 26, 2006

We all know giving is better than receiving, but receiving is pretty freaking rad too, especially when you've been passing around Engadget gift guides to the fam. And now, as we ask every year: what'd you get this holiday season?

P.S. -Don't forget to check out what people got in the dark ages, namely 2005 and 2004.